" 3. Commitment by the applicant to provide for offsetting all added <br />public costs or early commitment of public funds made necessary <br />by the development." <br />The staff report states that public facilities are available to the site. Opponents provided <br />substantial amounts of testimony arguing that various public facilities and services are inadequate <br />to serve the increase in population that would occur with approval of the CIR housing. In particular, <br />opponents argue sanitary sewer, storm water, schools, and roads are not adequate to serve the <br />proposed development. Opponents argue that traffic is already congested and dangerous on both <br />sides of the property. According to opponents, the proposed CIR housing would only exacerbate <br />an already serious problem. Opponents also argue that storm water runoff already causes problems <br />for properties near the southwestern corner of the property. According to opponents, the creek in <br />the southwestern corner already floods and the increased impervious surfaces would make the <br />problem worse. Opponents also argue that schools do not have capacity for the additional students <br />that would arrive with the proposed development. <br />If EC 9.724(2)(a) required that all public facilities and services were adequate to serve the <br />proposed use, I might well agree with opponents that the approval criterion was not satisfied. EC <br />9.724(2)(a), however, does not require that public facilities and services are adequate - merely that <br />they are "available." As the applicant explains in a lengthy history of the CiR ordinances, an earlier <br />version of EC 9.724(2)(a) required that "[p]ublic and private facilities are acequate to meet <br />anticipated demand." (Emphasis added.) After the adequacy requirement resulted in problems for <br />obtaining approvals for CIR housing, the City amended the EC to remove the adequacy <br />requirement so that CTR housing applications could be approved as long as public facilities and <br />services were available to the site rather than requiring that they be adequate. As the applicant <br />further explains, the Planning Commission applied. the version of EC 9.724(2)(a) at issue in the <br />present case in the Woodleaf Village case (CU 95-7) and in response to arguments that public <br />facilities and services were not adequate found that the EC amendments removed the adequacy <br />requirement. The Planning Commission found that public facilities and services were available to <br />the property and imposed conditions of approval to improve some of the public facilities and <br />services that needed improvement due to the project. As the Woodleaf Village case makes clear, <br />the question under EC 9.724(2)(a) is whether public services are available not whether they are <br />adequate. In the present case, even though some of the public facilities and services may be <br />Hearings Official Decision (CU 02-4) <br />